The suspected shooter in a double murder on the campus of Central Michigan University had been hospitalized a day earlier for behaving erratically, according to the chief of campus police.
Bill Yeagley told reporters early Saturday that 19-year-old James Eric Davis Jr., who allegedly shot his parents to death in a residence hall Friday, had been hospitalized for a few hours after campus police encountered him Thursday night "not really making a lot of sense," Yeagley said.
He said his officers suspected Davis may have been using drugs.
Yeagley said Davis's parents, notified by campus authorities about their son's behavior, picked him up from the hospital and took him back to his residence hall Friday morning. Thousands of students were heading home on Friday for the start of spring break.
Davis is alleged to have shot both his parents on the fourth floor of a residence hall around 8:30 a.m. Friday.
Officials at Central Michigan University said the two people killed were James Davis, Sr. and Diva Davis, both aged 47, from Illinois. Officials in Illinois said Davis Sr. was a part-time police officer.
Yeagley said video surveillance caught the younger Davis walking from a parking lot to a residence hall that morning with a gun in his hand. He said the gun was believed to have belonged to Davis Sr.
"We are not at all done with this investigation," Yeagley told reporters Saturday morning.
Davis was arrested early Saturday after a daylong manhunt. He was seen and reported by an individual on a train passing through the north end of campus shortly after midnight, Central Michigan University (CMU) said in a statement. Law enforcement personnel responded and arrested him.
The episode put the CMU campus into lockdown Friday morning, trapping students in classrooms and dormitories until mid-afternoon, while police conducted an expansive search for the suspected gunman and were methodically removing students from campus buildings.
The shooting Friday morning came as parents were arriving on campus to pick up students for spring break. CMU said it has more than 23,000 students enrolled at the school.
A men's basketball game scheduled to be held on campus Saturday morning was moved to nearby Northwood University. It was closed to the public except for family members, according to the Mid-American Conference, which governs college sports in that region.
Friday's shooting came amid a fierce debate over guns that followed last month's deadly shooting at a Florida high school.
Congress is currently considering whether to enact tougher gun control measures, including expanded background checks, raising the legal age for buying guns, and a ban on bump stock devices that convert semiautomatic weapons to automatic weapons.
